Jag har försökt hitta den här historien i flera år. Det föreföll i en av sci-fi-antologierna. En av de historier som framträdde i antologin med den är The Worm av David Keller.
Den historia jag letar efter handlar om en gammal man som går en mils promenad som en daglig rutin som urverk. En dag börjar han på sin rutin när han märker att hörnaffären har försvunnit. Det finns rapporter på radion att det händer runt om i världen, saker som bara försvinner till ingenting. Varje dag går han på sin promenad, mer av världen blir ingenting ... bara inte där och han måste börja klippa sin väg kortare och kortare.
I slutet sitter han i en stol som rymmer om vad som kommer att hända med sig själv när han bleknar iväg till ingenting. Kommer han att bli reinkarnerad, kanske som en stol. Utanför fönstret försvinner de omgivande byggnaderna till ingenting, sedan väggarna på sitt hus och sedan sin egen hand.
Det här ser ut som "The Street That Was not There" av Clifford Simak och Carl Jacobi, som för närvarande finns som en ebook på Project Gutenberg .
Det börjar hur du kommer ihåg:
Mr. Jonathon Chambers left his house on Maple Street at exactly seven o'clock in the evening and set out on the daily walk he had taken, at the same time, come rain or snow, for twenty solid years.
The walk never varied. He paced two blocks down Maple Street, stopped at the Red Star confectionery to buy a Rose Trofero perfecto, then walked to the end of the fourth block on Maple. There he turned right on Lexington, followed Lexington to Oak, down Oak and so by way of Lincoln back to Maple again and to his home.
He didn't walk fast. He took his time. He always returned to his front door at exactly 7:45. No one ever stopped to talk with him. Even the man at the Red Star confectionery, where he bought his cigar, remained silent while the purchase was being made. Mr. Chambers merely tapped on the glass top of the counter with a coin, the man reached in and brought forth the box, and Mr. Chambers took his cigar. That was all.
Och senare hittar du konfektbutiken borta:
All next day he was uneasy and as he left the house that evening, at precisely seven o'clock, he kept saying to himself: "You must not forget tonight! You must remember to stop and get your cigar!"
The street light at the corner of Jefferson was still out and in front of 816 the cemented driveway was still boarded off. Everything was the same as the night before.
And now, he told himself, the Red Star confectionery is in the next block. I must not forget tonight. To forget twice in a row would be just too much.
He grasped that thought firmly in his mind, strode just a bit more rapidly down the street.
But at the corner he stopped in consternation. Bewildered, he stared down the next block. There was no neon sign, no splash of friendly light upon the sidewalk to mark the little store tucked away in this residential section.
Slutar med honom ensam i ett rum som funderar på att, när han går som allt annat måste, om han bara är en "sak" (inte helt en stol).
But, after all, what was the use? One man, alone, could not stand off the irresistible march of nothingness. One man, all alone, simply couldn't do it.
He wondered what the elephant ash tray looked like in that other dimension. It certainly wouldn't be an elephant ash tray nor would the radio be a radio, for perhaps they didn't have ash trays or radios or elephants in the invading dimension.
He wondered, as a matter of fact, what he himself would look like when he finally slipped into the unknown. For he was matter, too, just as the ash tray and radio were matter.
He wondered if he would retain his individuality ... if he still would be a person. Or would he merely be a thing?
There was one answer to all of that. He simply didn't know.
Den samlades in med "The Worm" i 1948-antologin "Främmande portar av samtal" och senare med det på 1975: s "Creatures from Beyond" . Ibland är det titeln "The Lost Street" i stället och det har blivit uppenbarligen reviderat ett par gånger och så kan specifika detaljer vara olika mellan de två berättelserna och Project Gutenberg-versionen, men kanske kan du spåra den specifika antologin och hitta exakt berättelse du kommer ihåg.
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